Sunday, February 17, 2019

PRE-OP

This last week was one of making appointments for all the pre-op and going on these appointments. I messed up on the time for my Ultrasound and was 15 minutes late (I am never late for appointments) and sure enough the first time I am I get a nasty mean individual who tried to be as rude & unkind as can be. I don't know if ultrasounds are supposed to be painful,but this one sure was. I have a broken arm, and a bruised and smashed up face and he gets to be upset over a few minutes late! Oh, and he kept playing the sound of my heart beating real loud; maybe he thought it would freak me out but it made me smile cause my heart made funny but healthy sounds. I don't know if he got my sarcasm when I was leaving, I told him what a kind and thoughtful man he was and that I appreciated his making this experience an easy one. Also, I didn't want him to think he got to me, the creep. It's also nice leaving a bad experience behind and knowing that I took the high road. And I was hoping that if I was kind maybe he would be gentler with the patients coming after me. The ultrasound said my heart was in good shape for surgery; no problems. Yay!

But this is the thing about getting hurt and having to see doctors & techs that you have no relationship with. Most are really good people and are helpful, but not always. The next day we went for the pre-op visit to go over all my tests (I had just had a complete physical about two weeks before my fall). I got the thumbs up (by a really thoughtful doctor), so I will be having surgery soon with a specialist that does this kind of repair all the time. Phew! My ulna is broken from my elbow and has to be reattached and screwed into place. Would you believe that this is a common surgery? It is and that makes me feel so relieved. It usually takes about an hour & a half and I get to go home that day!

I haven't had a chance to take photos yet of the mosaic and substrates; everything is so much harder with only one arm (and it's my left arm and I am right-handed), but I am learning new skills and how to be patient, although that's a work in progress. And I sleep a lot. Which is where I am going now. Goodnight and peaceful sleep to all.


Sunday, February 10, 2019

BROKEN!

Bad News!

I tripped over some plastic while walking into the market Thursday around 1:30 p.m. and hit the blacktop. I hit so hard that I blacked out for a bit then I rolled over and the pain crashed into my awareness and I knew I was hurt and wasn't going to be able to get up. A concerned young woman's face appeared above me and she introduced herself as a nurse. I had smashed into the asphalt with the right-side of my body. I was wearing sun glasses which had lacerated parts of my face and my mouth was lacerated inside so I started to have blood coming from those injuries. My knee hurt bad and I couldn't move my arm without stabs of enormous pain shooting through it.

A manager from the store came out to get my info off my driver's license for an incident report and told me he was so sorry this had happened to me. When asked how it happened, I told him that I had slipped on something. Another man spoke up and pointed to a long black pen laying where I would have been walking. I was taken down by a pen! I love pens, but not that one, obviously. While waiting for the ambulance I started to get the shakes, a combination of freezing weather and shock which made everything hurt so much more.

The ambulance came and took me away. I won't go into the details of the visit to the ER except that when I looked at my face (and this was after they had cleaned it up) I was shocked to see the amount of damage but it will hopefully heal. I looked like I had been in the boxing ring and went 10 rounds. Oh yeah, and I was the one that lost. It turned out that my elbow is broken and I have to have surgery.

I have finished one small mosaic, prepped one substrate for a door, and prepped a mermaid cut-out substrate before the fall. I will post pictures soon. Hope you are all healthy and doing fun things.